Fashion Mash-Up Panelists (L-R) Steffany Boldrini, Ciara Peter, Jules Lauren Vasic, J.David Watson, and Domenica Peterson

Fashion Mash-Up Panelists (L-R) Steffany Boldrini, Jules Lauren Vasic, Domenica Peterson, Ciara Peter, and J.David Watson

A few months back, the folks behind San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance proved why fashion is worth blogging about (as if we didn’t already know), but the latest Fashion Mash-Up event, Blogging about Green & Eco-Products, came fully stocked with pointers to get your environmentally focused fashion blog off the ground. And over here at SF Indie Fashion, we’re big fans of both sustainable fashion and blogging, so we took it upon ourselves to highlight the panels’ most insightful tips.

Surprise Your Reader:

Promoting designs that rock the world of sustainable fashion and shy away from its stigma shows how eco-designs aren’t necessarily a style sacrifice for the fashion-savvy.

“There are a lot of stereotypes about being green. I sort of want to break that down and say, ‘Hey, you can look however you want, you can act however you want, it’s not that difficult. You don’t have to change your entire lifestyle,’” explains Ciara Peter, founder of Animal Friendly Shopping.

Know Your Target Market

Understanding who reads your blog will help you decide what kind of articles to write. If your readers tend to be mothers, it would be wise to write about the latest sustainable booties.

“We love moms. Moms are very worried about what they give their kids. They read labels, they do everything for their kids because they want the best for their kids,” says Steffany Boldrini, CEO of Eco Bold.

Know Where You Stand

When starting your blog, stand on solid ground on what ethics are most important to you: organic cotton or responsible sourcing? Once you know that, the right kind of audience will follow.

“Everyone has a different agenda. Some people don’t want to buy from companies that make anything that’s not vegan, a lot of them are having issues with going more mainstream,” says Peter.

Watch Out for “Green Washing”

A company may send you a product claiming to be environmentally-conscious, when really the only green they’re after is the kind in your reader’s wallet.

“I saw on a bottle saying, ‘This could be up to 30 percent biodegradable material.’ Okay, that could be zero. That’s completely green-washing and a lot of companies are doing that. You do need to take a little bit of time to really dig into a product and learn about it,” says Boldrini.

Lead By Example

Odds are, readers will start to pick up on any phony business. Set yourself and your blog to a higher standard for eco-fashion followers to be inspired by.

“It’s about raising the awareness, it’s about making it cool, it’s about breaking those misconceptions that we have,” says Domenica Peterson, founder of Global Action Through Fashion.

Fashion Mash-Up events are every third Thursday of the month. For more information and other fashion events, check out our calendar.

Photography courtesy of Nichole Albright for the SFFMA